This is a little rant I'm afraid. I know it's basically my fault BUT!!!!!

Sometimes when at clients premises, I have to use a series of rescue/installation discs to resolve an issue.

Sometimes, it can take quite a few hours to sort out the multiple problems people allow to accumulate on their computer before seeking professional help. A lot of which is helped along by the 'bar room fixers' who know absolutely sod all in real terms about much at all.

They don't know what the real problem is because they've not seen it and clients rarely know how to describe the problem fully anyway - not that there's anything wrong with that, I don't expect it.

The client then goes and mis-follows the wrong advice they've been given and make an even bigger dogs breakfast of the whole thing and after they've totally screwed their computer, they call me.

Now to the point of my rant.

After I've spent hours sorting out the cock-up, I put my things back in my bag (or so I think) and head off home. Some days, or even weeks, later I open my bag looking for the discs to find that I've accidentally left at my clients.

The annoying thing is the client, who now has a full set of service and recovery discs that I've paid for, and doesn't have a clue in hell how to use them, hasn't had the decency to ring me and let me know I've left them. This has happened every time I've done it.

I now have to go through the time and expense of getting a new set of dics together.

ONE THING YOU GET FROM ME IS HONESTY, IF YOU CAN'T RETURN THE FAVOUR THEN YOU DON'T DESERVE THE SERVICES I OFFER.

​I will work out where I left them and that person will have a heavy bill next time they call me!

It just goes to show, there's a lot of really dishonest immigrants out there.

Hello everybody.

Please be advised that we are starting to get booked up for April, so if you think your PC has a problem, or you're considering taking up one of our other services then please contact us now or we may not be able to get you sorted before we go.

You might even miss out on our FREE telephone install offer available for this month only if you don't get in now! Check our Special Offer page for more details.

Please don't leave it until the last minute and miss out.

Over the past few months, I've been extolling the virtues of a wonderful website that allows all us ex-pats to view live UK TV without the need to do anything special, and without the need for satellite TV installations. This website is www.filmon.com. It seems that Filmon are now only able to offer live UK TV in the UK. This is probably down to licencing regulations and the fact that to receive licenced UK TV broadcasts, you should be paying for a licence.

This issue does NOT affect any of our Satellite Internet clients as they all have a UK Internet address.

Currently, anyone residing outside the UK should not be able to watch live UK TV. Scream and shout as much as you like, that is how it is. So why can other nationalities get away with it then - you ask. Well, that's because they don't have the same licencing regulations as the UK so as to provide you with honest and impartial reporting of world events (for most of the time, that is).

So, you don't live in the UK BUT, you want to watch live UK TV (shame on you ;-) ). How do you go about it?

You can always fork out for a satellite dish and receiver and buy a forged sky card, you can pay for an illegal card sharing setup, you can pay one of the many illegal re-broadcasters who pop up all over the place - and disappear just as quickly with your money or you can watch live UK TV through the Internet, either directly from the broadcasters website or from an aggregators website such as www.myiplayer.com.

When I try to watch TV on the broadcasters website, it tells me it's not available in my region. Of course it does, because it's illegal to watch it outside the UK - because it's licenced for the UK only! Please pay attention, I'm getting to that.

OK smart a**e, how's it done? I'll tell you. You use something called a VPN (Virtual Private Network) that fools the website into believing you are in the UK.

How can I get one? There are many free one available along with some relatively cheap ones (5.00 GBP a month). I have personally used a 5GBP one from www.my-private-network.co.uk and it works fine, and they give you a full setup guide with pictures. We have also used the free "Best UK VPN Service" and find that works very well also.

What I do find a lot of - and have to uninstall a lot of - is Expat Shield. Whilst Expat Shield may be free, it's backed by advertisers, it also installs a 'handy' toolbar. Anybody who knows me knows how I feel about third party 'handy' toolbars. They're very handy at breaking things (as many of my clients can testify) and should be banned.

To get the "Best UK VPN Service", it is available from the myiplater.com website on the "catchup" page.

In my opinion, the only thing handy about Expat Shield is the ability to click a few buttons and it installs itself, along with the c**p it comes with. I used it for a couple of days then got rid of it and it will never darken my PC again. Not to be totally negative about this product, I do have customers who think it's marvelous, brilliant and all sorts of other positive adjectives.

Oh, I forgot to mention this option - Slingbox. An ideal option for those with relatives in the UK with a Sky/Cable subscription.

How does that work then? Well, it's intended for people on holiday who would normally be paying for their UK licence but they're not currently using it because they're on holiday and no one is in the house watching TV. That way, you're not breaking your licence agreement and it's legal.

It works by connecting a Slingbox to a Sky/Cable TV box in the UK. You then connect the Slingbox to your internet router. Whilst you're (ahem) 'away', you can watch your Sky/Cable package on your laptop or you would take something with you called a Sling Catcher. Sling Catcher is like a set top box that plugs into the Internet and the TV you're going to be watching. It then transports all your programs from the UK to where you are.

If that all sounds like black magic then when you've got the kit from Currys/PC World, just drop Sling Media support a line from their website and they'll set it all up for you. So that's the Slingbox in the UK, and SlingCatcher over here.

If you would like any more info, please feel free to drop us a line or comment below.

I have no connection to any of the products mentioned in this article.

All brand names and registered trade marks belong to their respective owners - not me.

Just a quick post to let everyone know we will not be taking calls from 5th May 2013 until 21st May 2013 inclusive as we will be on holiday. We will be open for calls again on the 22nd May.

We are having a well earned break, not having done so for over 2 years. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

We will, of course, still be monitoring our telephone networks and will be in a position to remedy any problems should there be any.

It occurred to me after reading an article about the quality and speed of internet in the UK that, from personal experience here in Spain, we don't actually do so bad - perhaps with the exception to pricing.

The article related that UK broadband subscribers at best have a 27% shortfall in the internet speed they're paying for and 60% at worst! That is appalling. The worst offenders in this scenario are Sky and TalkTalk (Tiscali) and the best is PlusNet.

Whilst I was with Telefonica on 3M, it rarely, if ever, went below 2M so it was on a par with the best in the UK (30%) and that was on ancient copper cable that doesn't like ADSL compared to the fibre-optic systems of the UK. My time with Europa 6M internet was even better with speeds rarely dipping to 5M which is better than the UK best at 15% shortfall.

My current provider, Telecable (Santa Pola Cable), provides me with 4M internet for a monthly fee of €21. Telecable seem to be one of the providers here that are bucking the trend. Why? Well, my 4M internet is actually running closer to 7M because they are trialing an upgrade without increasing the cost to the subscriber!!

I wouldn't normally recommend a wireless service provider above a landline one because most of them try to make it do things it's not supposed to do but these guys just seem to want to make it work.

No, this isn't meant to be an advert for Telecable but more about my experience with internet providers but, they do seem to be one the big players need to look out for. I have previously used Telefonica and Europa and found them to be very reliable, it''s the price point and the fact you can tailor the services to what you want. I operate my own VoIP service so the only thing I really need is internet. I don't need the phone line that comes with traditional ADSL which incurs an unnecessary financial penalty as nobody offers 'blind' ADSL apart from Vodafone but that prospect can be painful and quite unreliable.

Blind ADSL is simply having internet sent down a phone line without having a telephone connection.

In conclusion following my experiences of broadband/ADSL here in Spain is that the quality is far better than that reported in the UK so in that respect you can expect to pay more. OK, it's not a very scientific experiment but it is my personal experience.